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Victoria took out the double, with both the Men’s and Women’s titles, at the 2015 Smarter than Smoking Australian Handball Championships, in Perth, over the weekend (October 9-11).

Five States were represented across four teams each in Men’s and Women’s events. It’s been a big international year this year so the flights to Perth have been tough for some players but the level of competition was exiting and the games close scoring. Teams played three preliminary games and then finals across the three days.

2015 Smarter than Smoking Australian Handball Championships

Men's final

The Men’s Gold Medal final saw hosts WA playing Victoria - both teams met each other in the first game of the tournament where WA proved themselves to be the surprise updates of the tournament and the result was determined on the last seconds of play in Victoria’s favour. The first half was goal for goal until 8:8 and then by about 7 mins Victoria capitalized on turnovers to pull ahead with half time being 10:12 to Victoria. In the second half Victoria edged ahead and WA regrouped it to within 3 before Victoria built to the final score of 19:24 to take the trophy.

Women's Final

The Women’s Gold Medal match was between Victoria and SA/QLD. Again defence was extremely tight , along with some great saves by both keepers making the rare goals precious - Jemima Harbort (SA/QLD) and Manon Vernay (Vic). Half-time was 5:7 to Victoria. The second half saw only 5 goals scored a piece. Victoria's 2 goal lead from the first half kept them afloat and they won 10:12 in an exciting match that kept the referees on their toes and the spectators on the edge of their seats. Victoria reclaimed the Gold and the Trophy which they last had in 2012.

Men's third-place play-off

The Men’s Bronze game was between SA and NSW. SA scored first and then it was goal for goal until 9:9 when NSW started chipping away to take it to 11:14 at half time. The second half was more tense than the first. NSW slowly built to pull further away and SA kept chipping away to pull them back. With 4 minutes to go, SA was still fighting to bring the margin close only to see NSW stretch and finish 24:28.

Women's third-place play-off

The Women’s Bronze was between hosts WA and NSW which had the local crowd cheering. The first half saw SA in the lead at 17: 12. The second half was a fast affair with NSW pushing to reduce the margin and WA keen to keep it building. It was goal for goal and NSW scored slightly more than WA this half but WA kept control to take the win 23:27. The crowd started cheering with 30 seconds to go and WA won the Bronze, their first in recent history.

Dream teams (as nominated by the team coaches present)

Women:

Men:

LW: Joan Zampa (WA)

LB: Andreas Kommer (WA)

CB: Lucas Turecek (SA)

RB: Volker Koch (WA)

RW: Fabien Maschi (Vic)

Pivot: Sasha Mackintosh (NSW)

GK: Boris Jovanovic (SA)

Handball Australia would like to thank and congratulate Handball West for organising and running for the event. Thank you to President Michael Bone and your fine team for such an exciting and enjoyable weekend. Thanks to all our sponsors for the event, the Western Australian De[artment of Sport and Recreation, Smarter than Smoking and Healthy Way and Bank West, and also acknowledge our Handball Australia Sponsors Evolution Sports (Select) and Joma Australia.

We’d also like to thank all those teams who travelled to Perth to compete with such great display of fair play – there were no disciplinary hearings. And we’d like to thank the referees, officials and other helpers and supporters for contributing.